Doongmabulla Springs (Tom Jefferson)
Adani groundwater plan could permanently drain desert oasis, scientists say
One of the world’s last unspoiled desert oases could permanently dry up under Adani’s plan to drain billions of litres of groundwater a year for its Queensland mine, scientific experts say.
The Doongmabulla Springs Complex, a one-square-kilometre expanse of nationally important wetlands near the proposed site of the Carmichael coal mine, faced serious risk under the latest Adani plan before the Queensland Government, hydrogeologists argued.
The source of the ancient springs remains in doubt, with two Federal Government groundwater studies conducted since Adani received Commonwealth environmental approval in 2014 unable to identify which of two underground aquifers feeds the threatened ecosystem …
… A 2016 federal science department study under the Lake Eyre Basin Springs Assessment Project suggested it was more likely the miner would drain the very aquifer that fed the Doongmabulla Springs, Mr Currell said.
“If that is the case, there is a possibility that the mining would cause complete loss of the springs”
Source
ABC News
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